The conditions in the camps are terrible. There are no sanitation or health facilities, and the makeshift huts provide little shelter from the sun and dust clouds that sweep across the town.
"We have nothing here," explains Abdia Mahat, one of the camp's residents. "We only came here because there is some water, and now we just sit, waiting for someone to help us."
Abdia walked for three days with her husband and seven children to reach the camp. They arrived in El Wak with what they could carry. They had to leave most of their belongings behind because their donkeys, which would normally carry their things, have died. Her family used to have more than 100 cows — now they have only three.
When she first moved to the camp, she was able to earn a little money by making and selling charcoal, but now so many people have done this that the women often have to walk for days to find enough wood. Camps like this one have formed outside of every town and village in northeastern Kenya, and the numbers are increasing everyday.
On March 4, on a visit to El Wak, James Morris, director of the World Food Program, said the situation in this region was as bad as anything he had ever seen.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has provided $65,000 from One Great Hour of Sharing and designated funds towards the $2.4 million ACT appeal for Kenya drought and famine response that includes addressing the immediate food and water needs of the most-affected communities, distributing food, bringing water in by tanks for human and livestock consumption, and drilling boreholes. The Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) is a part of the ACT appeal and is taking an active role in the response.
|
